Madam Speaker, today, during question period, I asked a question to the Minister of Industry but it was answered by the Minister of Revenue, who is also responsible for the Economic Development Agency of Canada.
It concerned the request made by two Quebec ministers to meet with the Minister of Industry to discuss Bill C-6, which will be superimposed on what already exists in Quebec for the protection of personal information.
There is a law in Quebec that protects personal information, and the Quebec government wants to be heard by the federal government on this issue and express all the fears and objections it has concerning this bill.
By the way, this position is not without support. Several witnesses defended it before the committee. The Quebec access to information commission, the Quebec bar association, the CSN, the Chambre des notaires and the Conseil du patronat all said the same thing, that is, they are very concerned about the impact of this duplication, the problems it will create, when Quebec consumers are probably the best protected of all. After passage of this bill, these people will find themselves in a very muddy situation.
Some things have to be said, and the House should not be misled. The minister has alluded to the fact that there had been discussions between governments and that the federal government had responded to the fears and concerns of the Quebec government.
I have here the correspondence between the Quebec government and the federal government. First, on November 11, 1998, the minister received a letter explaining why there were differences and enforcement problems.
The minister replied. The Quebec government wrote another letter on January 25. This time, two ministers of the Quebec government signed the letter. I do not have time to read it in full, but I will quote at least one part of it.
With respect to clarity and fairness, as we were saying in our preceding letter, because of the overlap in standards and procedures that Bill C-54, if passed, would give rise to in Quebec, the bill is a step backward. It complicates the life of members of the justice system, it causes uncertainty about the rules and, thus, it penalizes both Quebec businesses and consumers.
Consequently, the minister cannot tell the House that there were satisfactory discussions with the Quebec government, that everything is fine, that we are talking to each other and harmonizing. There is no willingness to harmonize on the part of the federal government.
In its brief to the federal government, the Quebec bar association, in support of the recommendation of the access to information commission, said the following:
To avoid all confusion and make sure that Quebecers can continue to benefit from a comprehensive system of personal information protection, we submit that Bill C-54 should be amended to say clearly that the federal act will not apply to businesses covered by the Act respecting the Protection of Personal Information in the Private Sector.
That is the Quebec act. The Barreau went even further. It added, and I quote:
We would go further. To avoid confusion and legislative overlaps and duplications in Quebec, we believe that the bill should include a specific reference to the Quebec act to establish that it applies to areas of federal jurisdiction.
We favoured the reverse approach, that is that the Quebec act should apply to all federal institutions and all federally regulated organizations.
Why does the government want to railroad the bill this week? There is very serious opposition to it in Quebec and also in Ontario. I know that the Ontario Ministry of Health has problems with the bill. Why refuse the meeting? Why not wait before passing the bill?